PAKSE, Laos –
For one U.S. Soldier, a recent mission to Laos with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency was more than an opportunity to support the recovery of missing U.S. personnel — it was his first chance to visit the country his parents once called home.
Assigned to Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, Staff Sgt. Somvang Xayphengsy joined the mission after his unit was asked to provide one Soldier to support a DPAA recovery team in Laos. When he saw the opportunity, he decided to volunteer.
“I’d never been to my home country,” Xayphengsy said. “So, I thought I’d throw my hat in too.”
Born in Demorest, Georgia, Xayphengsy said both of his parents immigrated from Laos, though he grew up knowing only limited details about his family’s history there. Despite hearing stories from his mother and learning to speak Lao at home, arriving in Laos for the first time brought mixed emotions.
“When I first got to Pakse, it just felt unreal,” he said. “But I also didn’t feel like I had a connection to Laos.”
Xayphengsy said that while he was proud of his heritage, his first moments in the country were marked by uncertainty.
“I felt like I didn’t belong here, even though I’m Lao, because I was born in America,” he said. “I didn’t know much about my history. I just felt very disconnected.”
That feeling began to change as the team moved beyond the city and into the countryside, where Xayphengsy said he began to feel more at ease.
“Going from Pakse — the city — all the way to the countryside, I felt more at home, more connected,” he said. “The people seemed warmer and more open, and talking to them about the culture and the history definitely helped a lot.”
Throughout the mission, Xayphengsy also found himself using the Lao language more than ever before. While he grew up speaking Lao with his family members, he said most conversations with friends were usually in English.
“In these few weeks that I’ve been here, I’ve improved my vocabulary and the way I speak Lao a hundredfold,” he said. “I’ve spoken Lao here more than I probably have in my entire life.”
Xayphengsy said speaking with local nationals helped him gain confidence in the language, even as he remained self-conscious about dialects, pronunciation and word choice. In addition to the personal connection the mission gave him, Xayphengsy’s language skills also helped support the recovery team in practical ways.
“We had a primary translator, but with the size of the site and the terrain we were working in, having Staff Sgt. Xayphengsy there as well made a real difference,” Sfc. Ryan Wright, the mission’s team leader, said. “His ability to speak Lao helped us maintain communication across the site.”
For Xayphengsy, the mission became more than a temporary assignment. It became a chance to better understand his roots while contributing to a mission dedicated to bringing answers to families of America’s missing.
“It is a forgotten home,” he said.
Now, after seeing more of Laos and connecting more deeply with its people, he said he would welcome the opportunity to return.
“If the chance popped up, I would definitely love to do this again,” Xayphengsy said. “You’re going to run into different people, different dialects, different histories, different understandings of things. I’d love to keep coming back and seeing all that, along with helping the mission. It’s for a good cause.”